Near-field radiative heat transfer between topological insulators via surface plasmon polaritons

Recently, thanks to its excellent opto-electronic properties, two-dimension topological insulator not only has attracted broad interest in fields such as tunable detectors and nano-electronics but also shall yield more interesting prospect in thermal management, energy conversion, and so on. In this work, the excellent near-filed radiative heat transfer (NFRHT) resulting from monolayer topological insulator (Bi2Se3) is demonstrated. The NFRHT of this system is mainly dominated by the strong coupling effect of the surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) between two Bi2Se3 sheets. Moreover, the non-monotonic dependence of the Fermi energy of Bi2Se3 on NFRHT is then discovered. It is indicated that the system can provide great thermal adjustability by controlling the Fermi energy, achieving a modulation factor of heat flux as high as 98.94%. Finally, the effect of substrate on the NFRHT is also explored. This work provides a promising pathway for the highly efficient thermal management.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates the excellent near-field radiative heat transfer of monolayer topological insulator (Bi2Se3) and discovers the non-monotonic dependence of the Fermi energy of Bi2Se3 on heat transfer. It indicates that great thermal adjustability can be achieved by controlling the Fermi energy of the system. The research also explores the effect of substrate on the near-field radiative heat transfer.